THE DILEMMA OF MODERNISM
By the DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S A candid retrospect, however, must disclose a deep obligation of the Christian Church to the Modernists of every period—even to those who have been labelled "here- tics "—for apart from their labours Christianity would have degenerated into a fanatical sect and would certainly not have maintained its status as a creed for intelligent men.
Modernism as such is always confronted with a dilemma which cannot wholly be resolved. This dilemma may be represented, though unfairly, as a conflict between its " modem " outlook and its Christianity. The Modernist in every age is one who attaches value to current knowledge and is prepared to interpret and to criticise his religion from the standpoint of the best available historical and philo- sophical insight. But he is not simply a researcher or a speculative thinker; he is a believer and generally a preacher, and as such in possession of a revelation. He cannot be content with "the evidence seems to show," "we are led to suppose as the most likely hypothesis." There is a point where he must stand on, "Thus saith the Lord." At the present time, however, Modernism has to face in addition a dilemma. which arises from the growing complexity of the problems which it must attempt to solve. Liberal-minded Christian thinkers in the past were not, in the main, con- cerned with the historical basis of the faith. They accepted the records as they stood and were chiefly occupied in harmonising the doctrines of the Church with contemporary philosophy and science. It was generally assumed that the historical doubts of sceptics could be satisfactorily answered in such a way that the whole of the New Testament at least could be accepted as accurate record. The rise of New Testament criticism and of the science of - Comparative Religions has profoundly modified the situation and threatens to cause a cleavage in the ranks of Modernists themselves, The recognition that there are legendary elements in the Gospels and Acts has inevitably brought to the front the idea that there is an " original " and " simple " Gospel behind the Gospels, the real teaching of Jesus, which was from early times partially obscured and perverted by the development of the Church. Thus one powerful strain in current Modernist thought is the attempt to pierce through the dogmatic system and hear the authentic words of the historical Jesus.
The Modernist movement in England today is to a large extent, though not entirely, derived from two different and partly incompatible sources. There are those who derive inspiration from the Liberal' Protestantism of " the end of the nineteenth century, which found its most persuasive expression in Harnack's famous lectures, " Das Wesen des Christentums." There are others who have an intellectual and -spiritual affinity with Those thinkers to whom the name " Modernist " was first applied—the Roman Catholic scholars who, in opposition to Hama& and Liberal Pro- testantism, believed that it was possible to interpret the Christian dogmatic system, constitution and worship, inithe light of modem conceptions. These men were not in- different to Biblical criticism, indeed they were often more radical in their treatment of Christian origins than their Protestant adversaries. They held, however, that the Church was an essential element in the complex which is called Christianity and that its continuous life and experience was the datum for all efforts towards reinterpretation and reconstruction. It is well known that these ideas could find no permanent home in the Roman Church, and were, in fact, condemned as the "synthesis of all heresies," but they have not been killed ; they have found a more congenial environment in the Anglican Church.
The Church of England is both Catholic and Reformed, and it is therefore not surprising that its Modernists should be open to influence from these two sources. There is, however, a question which will have to be answered in practice : Can the two kinds of Modernist -not only live together in the same Church but work together for common ends ? The answer will not be known for some time, and it is not easy to predict what it will be There are grave diffi- culties in the way of mutual understanding. The Liberal Protestant tends to become impatient with the Catholic Modernist when the latter finds- meaning in the traditional forms of worship and values mythological statements as vehicles of religious truth. The Catholic Modernist, on the other hand, is tempted to wonder whether his Protestant brother has sufficiently pondered the relation between religion and poetry. He suspects that the "original gospel" may be really a creation of the "modern mind," and that a more thorough criticism would discover disconcerting discrepancies between what primitive Christianity was and what we should perhaps like it to have been. For him Christianity is, in Bosanquees phrase, "a world experience" which propagates itself from generation to generation in the life of the Church.
Yet the co-operation of the two schools of Modernist thought should- not be impossible, and we may even hope that in the comprehensive bosom of the Anglican Church they may become assimilated to one another. - For neither can afford to deny what the other cherishes. The Modernist who emphasises the continuous life of the- Christian com- munity cannot dispense with all reference ta -its origin, nor can he admit that every development of ecclesiastical doctrine and practice has been inspired by the Holy Spirit. There must. be some criterion to distinguish true -developments from aberrations and that must be found in the teaching of Jesus. In -so far as development has been away-from- His spirit and contradictory of His values it stands condemned. The Modernist who desires to recover the "pure gospel" apart from "human accretions," in his turn, cannot ignore the fact that he thinks, acts and prays as a member of the historical Church, that he mine to -know Jests first through her ministry, and that his sources of information about- the original gospel are writings which she has produced and preserved. Nor can he forget that his aim is not a purely academic enquiry into an ancient religious movement, but still more to refashion the 'Church so that it may be more adequately a spiritual home for the souls of ordinary men.
Modernism in all its forms stands for sincere and courageous thinking in the sphere of religion. A Modernist is a person who is unable to keep his thought in watertight compart- ments, and seeks, therefore, for a synthesis between his knowledge and his faith. There are differences of approach to this synthesis, there are divergencies of view concerning what elements in the religious complex are of fundamental importance, but where the -governing impulse is identical we may have good hope that, given an effort towards mutual_ understanding, co-operation may be not only possible but fruitful. No doubt a certain tension within Modernism will remain, but this may be an advantage if it ensures that Modernism shall remain self-critical and preserves it from the complacency of rationalism.
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